Disney’s CEO Bog Iger has given his only UK interview to BBC media editor Amol Rajan, and he spoke about Star Wars, Disney+ in the UK, Marvel success and Martin Scorsese.
‘Too many Star Wars films’
Disney bought Marvel in 2009 and turned it into film’s most lucrative franchise. There have been 10 Marvel films in the past three years, with eight more coming in the next three. Is there a danger of over-saturation?
“Marvel is just doing sensationally well,” Iger replies. “The last film they released [Avengers: Endgame] had the highest global box office in the history of the motion picture business, and their pipeline is very, very rich with new stories and new characters and new adventures and new superhero exploits. So not true.”
It’s a different story with Star Wars, though. After a run of a film a year for five years, ending with The Rise of Skywalker this December, there will now be a gap until the next instalment in 2022.
“I have said publicly that I think we made and released too many Star Wars films over a short period of time,” Iger says. “I have not said that they were disappointing in any way. I’ve not said that I’m disappointed in their performance. I just think that there’s something so special about a Star Wars film, and less is more.”
Britain must wait for Disney+
There may have been too many Star Wars films, but there clearly haven’t been enough Star Wars TV shows.
Disney is launching its own streaming service, Disney+, in the US on 12 November, with the highlights including The Mandalorian, an original live action series that takes place after the fall of the Empire in 1983’s The Return of the Jedi.
But British viewers will have to wait to watch it. Or anything else on Disney+. For up to a year.
“We haven’t announced a date for launch in the UK,” Iger says. “Our plan is to roll out Disney+ in most of Western Europe within the first year that we launch in the US.”
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